


Campaign Notes

by azure_prince



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:48:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25823167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azure_prince/pseuds/azure_prince
Summary: My notes from our d&d campaign. To share with the players, DM, and friends. The notes are unrefined and unedited; this is a rough draft. The noted are written as i remember things happening, and mostly only follow my own character, Syrin. there are some places where i've forgotten details or made my own comments about what happened, marked with a # so i could find them later and edit them. I don't know how to edit on A03 but thats fine im sure.





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is from the start up to when we received our first mission; the werebear hunt.

Year is 1296 M.A.  
Realm of Noraz, on the continent of Ifune.  
It’s been peaceful times for the last 1000 years  
There are 4 Major Kingdoms with their own symbol;  
Humans _ Otar (Griffon)  
Dragonborn/Dwarves _ Bewerk (Dragon)  
Elven _ Sundra (Elk)  
Gnomes _ Kuryba ( Gear)  
There used to be a fifth kingdom long ago; A water based society with a Trident Symbol.

* * *

We start in the gutter mug tavern. We’ve been told by our new employer, The Order of the Silver Hawk, to meet a half-elf by the name of Zendalla in the Guttermug tavern at noon. She will have a tiny pseudo-dragon with her. The tavern is a little run down, but cozy. Syrin arrived the previous day, and spent the night, definitely not wanting to be late. 

At noon, right on time, Zendalla and two more show up to the tavern. We make our introductions; a particularly large half-orc man introduces himself as “Gardar the Bear Wrestler,” and a quiet man, also rather large, and seemingly made entirely of stone, introduces himself simply as “Orikus.” We are informed there is supposed to be one more person, who is late. We go outside after our introductions and find a child with a huge pack on his back, lying on the ground like an overturned turtle. It would be quite humorous except for the fact that three other children are bullying him and/or beating him up. After shooing away the troublemakers we learn that this child, Theo, is supposed to be our final party member. Everyone seems (rightly) opposed to taking Theo (a literal child) on a supposedly dangerous mission. 

Things happen and Theo joins us anyway. We make for the docks to Zendalla’s ship. We’re told it’ll be a two day trip by ship to the Silver Isles. The first day is relatively uneventful; we meet the crew and get accustomed to being on the water. In the evening, Syring sees a giant humanoid shape in the water. Unsure if real big fish, or hallucination due to lack of sleep. The second day is equally uneventful. In the evening, we see a plain boat heading for us, and eventually just passing by. It has plain sails and barrels of fish and a cannon. Our trip slightly delayed (due to weather? I don’t remember) we approach the docks of our destination in the morning. Another ship, full of goblins, is on a collision course with ours. They refuse to slow or change course, and so does our ship. Orikus launches a javelin at them, completely unprovoked. Naturally, the goblins are not happy about it, and they try to retaliate. We attempt to negotiate with them and offering gold, but they are not quite satisfied. The goblins want us to beat up Orikus in their place. 

The party finally arrives in the small fishing village of StoneCove. The docks are relatively bustling, mostly being worked by humans. The town looks small, and most structures, buildings, roads, etc. Are made of stone. We are told to make our way to a small inn called The Seabarrel to meet with a man named Devon Lionheart. Along the way, we meet a man made of fire, a fire elemental, tending to fields. Theo, being a farmer before tagging along on the adventure, attempts to make conversation and be friendly, though the flame man seems to be one of few words, and perhaps someone who prefers his alone time. We move along. 

Eventually, we reach the Seabarrel. It is a large building, with big double doors and high ceilings. It looks relatively new. We are greeted by a very thin, boney, old man who is wearing a massive chain around his neck. He introduces himself as Devon, and takes some time to tell us about the town.

    * There is one temple in town, the temple of Eldeth, the goddess of fresh water, aka. The green goddess. Devon wears a symbol of the goddess at the end of a massive chain.
    * The farm in town is fun by John Torch, the fire elemental.
    * At the docks, there is a general goods and fishing supplies store called Joe’s Fishing Emporium.
    * Just on the outskirts of town, there is.a stone mine.
    * Lately the town has been having bandit/pirate troubles.
    * They have been having a hard time keeping adventuring groups



After giving us a basic rundown of things, Devon gives us a nice room to stay in at the tavern.

The next day, Devon gives us a test on our first morning in Stonecove. We are told to “exterminate” whatever has been cutting down all the trees just outside of town. We head out of town and find ourselves in a recently forested clearing. Here we are approached by a dark elf dressed in wizard robes. He introduces himself as Merlin, the final member of our little adventuring group. 

Just past the clearing, we hear a strange sound and go to investigate. In the trees not far from us we find a giant beaver gnawing on more trees. The party is hesitant to “exterminate it” as it’s just a beaver, doing as beavers do. We attempt a more peaceful approach to relocate the beaver away from town. 

After unsuccessfully approaching the creature head on, Syrin attempts to cast  _ Sleep _ on it. The spell backfires and hits both himself and Theo. After the initial shock of being hit with his own spell, Syrin realizes that magic can not put him to sleep and he wakes Theo too. 

Gardar and Theo go on ahead a bit, (### did we lead the beaver over there?) and find a beaver dam nearby a cliff with a large crevice in the base. There are no signs of beavers outside the dam, so Theo climbs on top of the dam, which upsets the beaver, who bites Theo’s ankle, then escapes into its home. Merlin and Gardar go to explore inside the crevice, and come back to inform us that there is a giant living in the cave.

The “giant” comes out and actually turns out to be a cyclops who is actually very friendly. He introduces himself as Tyson. He tells us he has a store here in the cliffside, where he makes (### weapons or something? ) and he asks for our help to name it. (We never did agree on one.)

We return to the SeaBarrel and recount our adventure to Devon over “cheese pies,” Orikus’ specialty. He explains that our test was not so much about eliminating whatever felled the trees, but more about how we respond to problems. Because we were kind to Tyson and his friend/pets, we passed the test. Devon then shares with us more information about the Order of the Silver Hawk.

The Order of the Silver Hawk was formed about 500 years ago because around 1000 years ago the 5 continents almost went to war. They created the Silver Hawk to help keep the peace as a sort of police force. 

In recent years, since the world has been more or less at peace for so long, the Silver Hawkworks more as an adventuring guild. The Order is usually run from out of taverns/inns, but occasionally groups start up their own places.

A lot of the jobs that come through The Order are too dangerous for people to just take them, so they have to be licensed by a guild first. The Silver Hawk is the most prestiged of the guilds due to its past, but it is still essentially just an adventuring group. They have a secret HQ hidden somewhere. (secret HQ is secret.)

After food, the party goes off to do seperate activities for the rest of the day. Orikus stays and helps Devon in the Kitchen, Gardar, Theo, and Merlin head outside the inn for training (#this is where Gardar punches Theo in the face to teach him to dodge lol) and Syrin heads around town to see if he can get information about Videi (he cannot.) On his return to the in, Syrin sees Gardar and Merlin drag in an unconscious, beat up Theo. 

"What happened?"

"Training."

He does not question them further.

As night falls, and the inn closes its doors, Syrin spends his time in the quiet, empty dining area. A knock at the door startles him out of his thoughts. Through the peephole in the door, he sees a rough looking burly man. He lets the man in and goes to find Devon. The big man is very polite, but seems very sad. Maybe he's tired…

Syrin stays at the bar all night and in the morning helps Devon clean and prepare for the day. Devon prepares the team an apple pie in celebration of their success in the previous day's test. The party gets to see first hand how incredibly skilled Devon is at his job in the inn. Theo does his best to help serve customers, but eventually they decide it best if he just helps to clean.

After a nice breakfast, Syrin and Gardar head outside to spar, which attracts the attention of the local children. Gardar encourages the children to fight each other too, Syrin disapproves. (I'm so sure Gardar won that fight.)

We return to the inn and see Devon talking with a bird man, an aarakocra, who is delivering mail. The bird man is named Swift and is a messenger of the Silver Hawk.

We recieve a mission:  
Time limit: 1 month  
Town of Hillfar  
Werebear attacks  
Reward 20GP  
[Werebear traveller transformed and attacked tavern. No casualties. Mission to track.]


	2. Chapter 2: werebear hunting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we received the werebear hunt mission, some stuff happened, we decide to go to goldfang, we get an ominous letter.

We recieve a mission:  
Time limit: 1 month  
Town of Hillfar  
Werebear attacks  
Reward 20GP  
[Werebear traveller transformed and attacked tavern. No casualties. Mission to track.]

Devon tells us that Hillfar is about a five day travel and that the attack was on the Buzzsaw tavern. He also explains to us that on the Silver Isles there are 6 villages: 4 "booming" and 2 pretty dead. Goldfang is the largest of these towns.

The gruff man, Leo, from the night before approaches the party explaining that he needs help to move in. He offers us 20SP for our help. He leads us down into some trees just off the edge of town where there is a small run down cabin. Our job is to help repair and clean up the space to make it livable. 

After a long day of hard work, the party and Leo share a meal around a fire. Not long into their rest, Gardar mentions hearing noises around them, and suddenly the group finds themselves being attacked by Kobolds. Syrin gets struck from behind by a shockingly powerful blow, nearly knocking him out completely, Theo takes shelter inside the cabin, Orikus and Gardar climb on top of the cabin to face the Kobolds who are up there. Somehow, the party emerges successful, tho not unscathed. Theo in particular seems to have a rough time, the sights and sounds of battle making him sick to his stomach. Yet another reason not to bring a child on a dangerous adventure.

The party decides it is for the best to head back to the inn. Devon informs Syrin that there is a bath house in the temple in town, and Syrin makes his way there to wash up. Theo follows. The two of them arrive at a clean white building, where they are healed and cleaned up. On returning to the inn, the party shares a meal together.

29 days remain…

Syrin is an early riser, and in the mornings he heads outside before dawn to practice either his swordplay or his music before breakfast.

After breakfast, Syrin hears some dockworkers at the inn talking about Ralgas, describing him as the best swordsman in town. On hearing this, Syrin is curious and sets out to find this Ralgas. He is a busy man during the day, so the two of them make plans to meet at the docks that night to spar. Syrin and Ralgas meet up together in front of the general store, ready for a friendly spar on the docks under the beautiful moonlit sky. They exchange stories of their similar pasts before they start. Ralgas immediately loses his footing on a loose board but Syrin delicately whisks him away from the danger and the two decide to share a bottle of wine and continue chatting instead.

The next morning, Gardar rushes out very early, completely ignoring Syrins greeting. Later, over breakfast, Syrin asks Theo if he noticed anything, and he learns Harder had gone to Leo's house. As the party is getting ready to depart, Garret Steelsong, owner of the stone mines, appears in the door asking the party to help him in a rescue mission. We explain that we are worried about Gardar and Garret agrees to help us find him, instead of paying us money for his rescue mission.

We find Gardar at Leo's house, bloodied and bandaged whole Leo acts nervous and suspicious. We take Gardar with us to be healed and then head to the mines. 

Garret prepares us with some equipment before leading us off to the cave where his men disappeared. Inside the cave there is an exceptionally long, spiraling staircase, certainly man-made. We descend, single file for that's all the stairs will allow. Down and down and down and down. As we near the bottom we notice about 12 Kobolds grouped at the bottom in front of a large door. Orikus attempts to catch them by surprise, but he ends up alerting them that someone's with them. A single Kobold ascends the stairs to investigate and sounds the alarm.

Garret points out that at the base of the stairs the Kobolds appear to be eating humans, likely Garret's men. Being outnumbered two to one, already somewhat injured, and illl equipped for a full on battle, we decide to retreat to the cave entrance, Kobolds in pursuit.

At the entrance to the mine, we hear a storm brewing. We wait outside in the brush to ambush the Kobolds as they exit one by one. (### I don't remember if we threw things at them from the bushes??? Or if it just started pouring rain out???) The Kobolds retreat back to the safety of the mine, and the party makes their way back to the town.

The party caught the worst of the storm and arrives back at the Sea Barrel completely soaked. Syrin avoids leaving a mess in the entrance by nimbly jumping up to the second floor window of their rooms. While the party dries off and warms up, they discuss what they should do about the kobold problem. Syrin suggests causing a cave in. They all head to bed for the night.

Late into the night, Theo starts screaming for help in his sleep. Syrin tries to shake him awake out of his nightmare without success. When Theo finally does wake up he has one bright purple eye with a sygil in it. 

After breakfast the party (minus Orikus who stays behind to help at the inn) makes their way back to the mines. We get some tools and supplies from Garrett, he has extra since the rain has left less work to be done for the day, this less men working.

At the cave we have a slight change of plans; Merlin and Theo head over to visit Tyson to ask him to block off the cave with a big boulder. 

Syrin and Gardar head over to Leo's place to ask for his help as well but he is nowhere to be found. We find him a short distance away chopping trees in the woods. He explains That he is the werebear, he attacked Gardar the other day tho not on purpose, and he asks both Gardar and Syrin to help him remove the curse pleading for them to keep it a secret. Syrin offers to ask around town if there is anyone who can remove curses.

(# here I've marked that we're currently on the 4th of the month Evire and that the summer solstice is on the 21st of this month. )

Gardar, Syrin, and Leo all return to town together. The walk is super awkward and every time Leo says anything he only makes it worse… we arrive at the Sea Barrel and fill Orikus in on our plans for the Kobold cave, and then head over there ourselves. 

Theo and Merlin also head over to the kobold cave, along with Tyson. They bring Tyson right through town, which understandably frightens the townsfolk.

The party reunites along the way and we stop by Garret's to ask about finding a boulder. He does not have one. Why would he have one. 

We continue on our way to the cave, and the weather starts to turn for the worse. It is very dark and rainy. Along the way, we find a boulder that may work, tho it isn't quite tall enough to cover the entire crevice

The party sits to take a break for a bit, and Tyson gives gifts to Theo and Syrin, and mentions the rest of the party has ones in the works. Theo receives a small carving knife in the shape of a beaver. Syrin receives a pretty comb that can cast the cantrip mending. Both items are surprisingly delicately detailed, considering how very tiny they are compared to the crafter. 

It becomes clear that a big storm is on the way...

We arrive at the cave and are immediately attacked by Kobolds. We finish them off and bring Tyson to drop the boulder, and then he goes off in search of another smaller one to block the top. The party keeps guard to make sure no kobolds escape. When Tyson returns we all head home. The party shares some drinks at the inn and explains to Devon about the kobold cave and what we saw there. 

While we were gone, Swift delivered the mail. We also got another job; Ralgas requested the party's help in a hunt. 

Merlin was too focused on some book to hear anyone calling him, so the party left without him. We head to the general store to meet up with Ralgas and get details about the job. He wants our help in fighting a giant octopus who had been causing trouble for his men out on their ships.

We board the ship and set out to find the beast. It's quiet while we wait, so we mostly just fool around for a while. Syrin spends his time below deck, as does Theo. Syrin isn't sure how to talk to Theo, so they sit in very awkward silence for a while. Theo attempts to teach himself chess with a set he found on the ship, and Syrin tries out his new comb and tidies his hair more suitable for a battle. 

Ralgas joins the two below deck and makes an attempt to flirt with Syrin. Syrin is dense as heck and doesn't understand. Ralgas instead ends up going upstairs to teach Theo some basic swordplay. Theo borrows Syrin's rapier for this lesson. 

After some time, Syrin heads up top to retrieve his sword only to find the octopus has shown itself and is attacking the ship. It launches Theo down some stairs destroying the door on the way. Syrin hits it with a thunderclap, and throws a wink at Ralgas (bardic inspiration.)

Meanwhile Gardar eats something (berserker shrooms) and goes into some sort of super mode. He smashes the heck out of the octopus, tho isn't able to finish it off. Ralgas runs up one of the tentacles and smashes the beast back into the ocean going down with it. Syrin sees he's not really needed and goes to check on/tend to Theo. Syrin fails to notice how super cool Ralgas looks as he brings the defeated monster back onto the ship without even breaking a sweat. The party is given a barrel of octopus to take back to the inn for dinner.

After the heat of battle dies down, all signs of whatever Gardar ate leave him, and he (#passes out?) Orikus takes him back to the sea barrel over his shoulder.

The party arrives at the inn and Merlin is very enthusiastic about helping them to their seats and waiting on them. (# I'm pretty sure here Merlin was working on his All About Theo book. Though thinking now he was also working on it when they went together to get Tyson to help with the Kobolds.)

Syrin joins some other patrons in making music and helping create a comfortable friendly atmosphere. Everyone enjoys some ale and a warm meal together. Two big burly scruffy men in furs, also guests at the inn try and teach Merlin how to sing with everyone else.

Merlin, Orikus, and Syrin are the last one to turn in for the night. Merlin is excited to learn more about Ralgas. Syrin learns that Orikus told Ralgas he didn't like him and is upset about it. 

The next day the weather finally clears up. Syrin sees Merlin follow (#sneaking?) Theo along on his morning routine, something unusual for him. 

At the first light of day, Syrin heads over to the temple on hopes of finding someone who can remove curses. He's passed by a little old lady who requests his assistance in finding her cat fluffy. He tells her he'll keep an eye out without making promises. 

At the temple, Sophia tells Syrin she can't remove curses but directs him back to the inn to speak to Devon (#who used to be a paladin or something???) Sophia seems possibly suspicious about why Syrin is asking. 

Syrin then makes his way over to the docks in order to apologize personally to Ralgas for any rude things Orikus may have said on his behalf and to reassure Ralgas that he doesn't hate him. 

Syrin returns to the Sea Barrel in time for breakfast. The party discusses going to Hillfar when the gruff men from the last night come in demanding information about the werebear, as they are also working on the same job. The gruff men make it clear that they are out to kill the werebear. 

In order to buy time to help Leo, Syrin convinces the hunters to go check out the kobold cave. (I think Syrin said something about attacks there? Or some activity happening. He left out the facts that the party already checked that area out and stuff. Merlin greatly disapproved of Syrins lying.)

(##at some point that I didn't mark down, the whole party learned that leo is the werebear.i also never marked down Theo going into town to get a cart. He does that. Using his sweet farmboy charm.)

Syrin and Gardar leave quickly to Leo's place to warn him of the werebear hunters. Syrin suggests hiding him in the inn where he'd be close enough for the party to protect him. Leo suggests just fixing the house. The three of them end up sitting around in Leo's house waiting for the rest of the party to join up. Gardar and leo have coffee. So. Much. Coffee. They end up crashing hard and having a nap on the floor together. It's ok Syrin takes care of them and tucks them in and watches over them. 

Meanwhile, Theo and Orikus went out to town to search for info they could use to help Leo. They go to Ralgas and end up accidentally letting Leo's secret slip. Ralgas gets upset because Syrin would do something dangerous and lie about it to him/not tell him. He goes with Orikus and Theo to Leo's house.

Ralgas gives Syrin an earful about doing dangerous stuff, but in the end lets him do his job his way.

When the party is together, they decide they will go to Goldfang, the biggest town on the island, to try and find a priest or someone who can lift Leo's curse.

The whole way back to town Syrin brags to Ralgas about Videi and how great and strong and honorable and smart and strong and talented (ect.) 

We return to the sea barrel just as Swift arrives to deliver the mail. There is a small black envelope with no name on it. The letter itself reads only "we know" and disintegrates after being read.


	3. Chapter 3: actual werebear hunting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we go hunt for a werebear. my notes were pretty blank here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the last chapter of the homebrew setting before we go to strahd-land

Three cloaked figures walk into the bar - a drow in fancy clothes, a drow in armour, and someone with red skin, gauntlets, and two silver morning stars. (A tiefling) They look around the bar before taking a seat at a booth by themselves.

(## here the page is blank. I most likely was going to go back and fill in what happened the next morning and then I didn't do that. Merlin went over to the table to talk to the drow and the whole scene was kind of awkward. I wish I remembered exactly what happened between them.)

After the awkward interaction with Merlin, the drow woman comes over to the rest of the party and introduces herself as Morgain. She tells the party that she and her group are mercenaries, also heading to Goldfang. Syrin suggests they could go together. "Safety in numbers." Morgain says sure, if we have the coin. We do not.

The two werebear hunters, apparently finished at the kobold cave, come back to the inn and start harrassing Leo, knowing he is the werebear. Syrin and the Tief man talk them down without resorting to violence, but they leave and take the cart Theo borrowed.

We chase off the hunters, get our cart back, and decide it best to leave immediately for Goldfang. Less than a day into our travel, we are ambushed by kobolds, and nearly killed by their swinging log trap. We lose our cart in the attack and are forced to travel by foot.

We head west making our way toward the Hasuke Forest. There we set up camp for the night and decide to use up what little rations we had instead of foraging since everyone is exhausted. Syrin and Merlin offer to take watch over everyone for the night. (#this was before we remembered half-elves do not meditate the same way as elves do and thought they both only needed half night of rest.)

Merlin takes first watch. When Syrin comes to trade off shifts, Merlin mentions seeing some strange lights off in the distance. Syrin doesn't see the lights for a very long time. When they finally do appear, Syrin sees them as some very small thing glowing brightly. They disappear before the first light of day.

The next day, the party splits up to look for food. Theo and Gardar go to hunt meat and come back unsuccessful. The rest of the party goes to forage and returns with a ton of blackberries. At least, enough to satisfy our hunger for the moment.

We come across a river and decide to follow it, which eventually brings us very close to some small bears. We go after the bears, a much more filling meal. Gardar, Mr. Bear Wrestler, shows off his bear hunting skills. He melts into the shadows of the foliage and sneaks off to ambush the bears from behind. 

The small bears are cubs and their mama joins the battle. Syrin and Theo both almost die, Syrin takes a big slash across his chest and Theo gets a bite in the shoulder. Somehow the party wins, and we get a very filling meal. We patch ourselves up and set up camp in the clearing.

Not long into our rest, Merlin wakes us. The strange lights we saw in the forest turned out to be will-o-wisps. Merlin books it, and Syrin spends a lot of time screaming. Somehow though the party is successful though.

We rest up and head out in the morning, continuing to follow the river. Around noon, we come to a perfectly round round pond with an old shack at the far end. A sudden heavy downpour forces the party to rush to the shack to seek shelter. It is very worn down and the roof leaks, but it seems to be good enough for the moment.

There isn't much inside the shack; a couple of old fishing poles, a map of the immediate area, and a skull of some serpentine creature. (#i can't remember if we memorized the map or took it with us. There was a road to the north past the trees tho)

Eventually the storm takes a turn for the worse and the party is forced to flee. 

We leave the shack and continue north toward Goldfang. Before we are out of the forest, we come across a small inn. The sign is mostly faded but it appears to otherwise be in good repair. The rest of the party is very very tired and suggests staying the night here, the Syrin is very strongly opposed to the idea. This place gives him the creeps. Syrin ends up going in with the party not wanting to be left alone if more of the ghostly wisps show up again.

Inside the inn is cozy and clean and the lady working seems friendly enough. We eat a warm meal and go to bed. 

We are woken in the middle of the night (#was itt Theo who screamed?) And the illusion over the inn disappears. The hostess was a ghost all along and we are forced into fighting her. Theo does some cool thing where suddenly there are four of him, Syrin cries, somehow the battle is won.

Since the ghost is gone, we finish resting in the run down inn and head out in the early morning.

That place was sketchy… Syrin told them so….

We eventually reach Goldfang. After asking around we learn of a cleric of Mielikki who can possibly help us. Unfortunately, he is out of town on his way to Hillfar. The cleric is a dwarven man by the name of Deryll Oakwall. He is described as having a big brown bears, his hair tied in a bun, and wearing white robes with green accents. Also he plays a piccolo. 

Our visit to Goldfang is brief. After we got information as to who we need to find, we restocked on supplies for the trip to Hillfar. We manage the trip without incident.

Hillfar is a small town near the water with an active port, bigger than the one in Stonecove.

Syrin, Theo and Leo head to the Buttersaw Tavern in town to look for information about where Deryll might be. Theo talks to the cat there? and learns the clerics whereabouts-the horse stables. We regroup and head over to the horse breeders fields. We find Deryll and he and Syrin bond over a mutual love for animals and music before we remember we were searching for him to remove Leo's curse. Deryll does that.

Deryll then joined the party to hunt for and apprehend the OG werebear who cursed leo in the first place.

(##im missing a lot of notes about the werebear battle. I remember getting to a cave with multiple entrances and the party splitting up. I remember Leo befriending the guard dogs. I remember the werebear being a total absolute dickwad when he spoke to anyone. We beat his ass, Then Deryll removed his werebear-ness and took him back to town.)

After the party apprehends the werebear, we take a look around his cave and loot it. We find:

  * 3 guard dogs (Leo takes them)
  * 3 kegs of dwarven beer
  * 18 fox pelts
  * 2 breastplates
  * A silver halberd (Orikus takes it)
  * 42 silver bars
  * 12 gold bars
  * 4 red potions (Syrin holds them)
  * Monster Manual (Merlin takes it)
  * 3 Spell scrolls (Merlin takes those)
  * 400GP worth of gems and jewellery
  * 100GP 250SP 72CP



The werebear man had quite the stash...

While we're going through the cave, we find a pool of water with an underwater passage leading to a chamber with another sealed door similar to the one at the bottom of the Kobold cave in Stonecove.

Theo spaces out for a bit then shoots the door with a magic beam. (#remember when his patron said 'elderich blast it' and Theo was like 'whats an eldritch blast?' lmaooooo) The door opens up, letting loose a huge flock of spectral Ravens. Beyond the door and past the ravens was a room containing only a single wooden rod, topped with a gem in the shape of a lion head. (#Merlin took it initially, then somehow later, probably for the sake of not losing it, Syrin ended up with it.)

The party makes their way back to Hillfar with Deryll and the former werebear, collect the reward for the job (split with Deryll) and then makes their way back to Stonecove in a decent carriage with a couple horses.

On the way back, the weather gets strange and foggy and everything starts to feel strange. The party blacks out and when they come to, Theo Leo and Merlin are no longer with them.


	4. Chapter 4; off to Strahdland

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> our first few days in strahdland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one ends after visiting madame eva. This chapter has our fortune in it.

The party awakes from their daze, in an unfamiliar, broken down wagon. They are in a creepy forest shrouded in fig, limiting visibility. Both Theo and Merlin are missing. We're not on the Silver Isles anymore… 

After confirming that the missing party members are likely not around, Syrin nimbly climbs a tree to get a better idea of their surroundings. (#in hindsight it would have been funnier if he failed that roll lmao) To the east there is a seemingly impenetrable wall of fog. To the west, the forest extends for a distance. There are two towers in the forest and a road that leads beyond. The sky is dark and thick with clouds. It's hard to tell the time of day.

Shortly after our arrival in the strange and spooky forest, we are encountered by a frightened looking badger. Someone in the party mentions it looks like food (Gardar or Orikus) and we give chase. We catch the badger who transforms into a halfling woman. She says she was being chased by skeleton horses and riders who, of course, show up right on cue. The party fights the skeletal beings, and somehow we win. Syrin is convinced this is all a very bad dream. Syrin cries.

The halfling woman introduces herself as Andry, and offers to show us the way to the city of Barovia. We follow her west towards the two gate towers. Just past these towers the party is greeted with the smell of death. Not wanting to join who or what that smell was coming from, the party decides it is safer to just keep moving.

We arrive to the city of Barovia and in the distance a woman can be heard sobbing quite loudly. The city is otherwise quiet and lifeless with no one in the streets. With no other ideas of what to do, the party decides to investigate the sobbing. We go to the only general store in town. The store carries a decent selection of adventuring gear, but without competition the prices are completely obscene. We don't have any money, so Audry trades some magically created Goodberries for some bedrolls. 

We then discuss with Bildrath, the shopkeep, about the sobbing heard in town. He explains that recently Old Mad Mary's daughter has gone missing. The party shares a look, silently regretting not investigating the smell by the towers, likely the missing daughter… Regardless, the party goes to check on Mary. We spend a solid 20 minutes knocking and calling to her before we just break into her home. (#I just realized she's afraid of Strahd…. She wouldn't have let us in anyway in case we're vampires. How did I miss that damn….)

We find Mary sobbing in a rocking chair cradling a doll. Written on the doll are the words "is no fun, is no blinskey." After pestering the old woman, she gives us as much information about Strahd as she can, and asks us to find her daughter. (#did we tell her about the death by the towers?) 

We leave Mary to wallow in her misery and head to the tavern to rest. The tavern only serves wine. A handsome, drunken man calls over Syrin and Andry, as discreetly as a drunken man can. He introduces himself as Ismark, and requests that our party of adventurers would help him and his sister leave Barovia, ideally either to vallaki or krezk. He asks us to go with him to the mayor's house for more details.

On the way out of the tavern, Syrin is approached by a few very gaudily dressed women. Their clothes are more expensive and colourful than anything we've seen so far in Barovia. They whisper to Syrin: "Make sure you see Madame Eva, for she can tell you much about yourself." 

The party accompanies Ismark to the mayor's house. The outside walls and gates appear as though they have been attacked violently by large beasts. Ismark assures us that it's fine though. As we enter the building, we are greeted once again with the smell of death and decay, and then were greeted by a young beautiful woman. The woman is Ismark's sister, Irena. The smell of death is their father, the late Mayor of Barovia. They say he died of a heart attack, and they request our assistance in carrying him in his coffin to the church across town. 

As we depart, we notice an old woman with a cart going door to door. Most doors do not open for her. We watch for a while and eventually one house does open their door, and we witness an exchange of a child for whatever this old woman is selling. We approach this old woman about taking this child as payment. She denies doing anything wrong. Andry climbs into the back of her cart and unties the child (who immediately books it to who knows where) while Gardar intimidates the old woman. The woman begs for her life in exchange for information about Strahd and Barovia. The party listens to what she has to say:

  * There is a large windmill on the way to Vallaki called the bone grinder. Old women there turn children into meat pies which she is selling.
  * Strahd has vestani spies all over Barovia
  * There are vestani camps near vallaki and west of tser pool
  * Strahd has an undead army of fallen Knights of the order of the Silver Dragon.
  * Their base is in a ruined mansion to the south and west of vallaki
  * There is a "Temple of Forbidden Lore" somewhere in the mountains past Tsolenka Pass.



Despite receiving potentially valuable information from this old woman, causing harm to children is completely unforgivable. The party watches as Gardar lifts this woman up and slams her down on her cart, reducing it, and presumably her, to nothing more than a heap of scraps in the street. We do not stop to check, but the frail old woman is probably dead. No one in the party seems to disapprove of this action.

We make it to the run down church and see a priest praying at an altar in a room past a long hall. A blood curdling scream echoes through the church. The priest explains to us that his son was turned and is locked away in the church's basement. 

We take the mayor out around the church to bury him. During this time, the priest explains that the mayor was not Irena's real dad, but he found her abandoned and he took her in.

We spend the night at the inn. Seeing the horrifying state of the town, the party cannot rest easy without a watch. Syrin takes first watch. An eerie green glow fills the graveyard and ghosts begin to surround the church. It is very frightening. In the morning, the priest explains that this is a regular occurrence. Nothing bad has happened but it sure is spooky.

The priest makes us breakfast and suggests we seek out help in the village of Krezk in the church of the Morning.

Syrin mentions something about a "Madame Eva" and the party is curious. She should be near tser pool, which is on the way to vallaki.

We leave the village of Barovia with Ismark and Irena and begin making our way towards Vallaki. Shortly after our departure we are ambushed by a group of skeletal cavalry. We make short work of them and continue making our way north towards tser pool. 

We come to a crossroads on our way, empty at first, though as the rest of the party leaves, Syrin pauses a moment, noticing a gallows that wasn't there before. A corpse is hanging from the gallows, slowly it turns around, and Syrin sees a familiar face, though disfigured by death and decay; Syrin sees himself hanging in the gallows. Syrin does not mention the grotesque sight to the party, and instead ushers them to quicken their pace forward. Syrin cries about it, but it's ok; he's at the back of the party.

The party continues to make their way toward Tser Pool. Along the way they see a grand total of 11 gravestones, all of them blank.

We are stopped, not far from our destination, by an older beat-up and malnourished looking man. He begs us for food. Andry offers several magic berries but he insists he is still hungry. He needs more. He needs meat. He is extremely weird and annoying. He sniffs Andry. She says he had yellow eyes- possibly a werewolf.

Finally we arrive at the Vestani camp in Tser Pool. There are a few large and colorful caravans making somewhat of a border to their camp. In the middle of these caravans, around a campfire are 8 people singing, dancing, drinking, and just having a merry time all around. They invite the party to join them. As they talk, the party learns that the Vestani are very well liked by Strahd and are permitted to go freely between planes. 

The party goes, after a short while, to see Madame Eva and get our fortune told.

* * *

**Madame Eva’s Fortune**   
_“This fortune could help you, or hurt you…”_

 **History. Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your foes.  
** Healer: “Look to the west. Find a pool blessed by the light of a white sun.”  
 _In the northwest there is Lake Baratok, named after Strahd’s father. It lies just east of_  
 _Krezk, a small town known to worship the Morning Lord…_

 **A powerful force of good and protection. A holy symbol of great hope.  
** Conjurer: “I see a dead village drowned by a river ruled by one who brought great evil into the world.”  
 _Baba Yaga brought the darkness to Barovia. Ruins of Berez- Drowned by a river_  
 _rumoured to be caused by Strahd._

 **Power and strength. A weapon of vengeance. A Sword of Sunlight.  
** Avenger: “The treasure lies in a dragon’s house. In hands once clean, now corrupt”  
 _There are no dragons in Barovia, but there was the Order of the Silver Dragons: Old_  
 _Knights who now serve in Strahd’s Undead army._  
 _The old knights temple: no one has made it their home, but there is a mysterious_  
 _rider who passes through sometimes. the structure is unsound and falling apart._

 **This card sheds light of one tho can help you greatly in the battle against** **darkness  
** Raven: “Find the leader of the feathered ones who lives among the vines. Though old he has one more fight left in him.”  
 _The feathered ones are endangered were ravens- a sign of good blessings and good_  
 _luck._  
 _(this happens later) After being banned from Vallaki, the Martikov’s share their secret (they’re were-_  
 _ravens) and give us a letter of introduction to the Wizards of Wine Winery where Mr._  
 _Martikov’s Father lives/works_

 **Your enemy who’s powers are beyond mortality- this card will lead you to him  
** Marionette: “Look to great heights. Find the beating heart of the castle; he will be there.”

* * *

After the big fortune telling for the whole party, we start asking individual questions. Despite the suddenly desperate situation, and certainly not just a dream, that the party has found themselves in, Syrin has not forgotten about his dearest friend Videi. Having found no other leads on his friends, Syrin asks Madame Eva if she knows anything. She tells him:

  * The letter Videi recieved was very important and something he could not discuss. He was burdened by the choice to leave.
  * When asked if Videi is still alive, she responded with "He still walks among us." Being thrown into a world full of walking dead, the words were of little comfort to Syrin. In fact, their vagueness was more concerning than anything.



We received information about our destinations for Irena's rescue. We are told about vallaki, a large city, well populated with a big garrison, many shops, seemingly a good place to hide an individual. We are also told a bit about Krezk, a small town near barovias border, far from Strahds castle, with a large following in the church of the Morning.

We are also told a bit about The Bone Grinder, that it's home to hags who are very strong and we should avoid it.(#or something like that)

The party leaves Madame Eva and continues to enjoy the Vestani's hospitality, making merry and getting very drunk. Andry was held back by Madame Eva, and offered to go home. Leaving Barovia isn't an easy task, so Andry took up the offer without a second thought. Ok maybe one thought first; she left her bedroll and map and some notes of Barovia in one of the party members packs, snuck in while they were too drunk to notice, and then she left. The rest of the party got real drunk and passed out for the rest of the night.

The party awakes to an almost empty campsite apart from themselves. The Vestani left, Andry left, the only sign either of them had been there are many tracks in the mud and Andrus notes which were left in Gardars pack. 

Though almost everyone left, the party awakes to a friendly, familiar face. 


	5. Chapter 5: The Hagslayers; a legend is born

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> lmfao shit happens, theres some witches, it ends when we get to the city gates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a short chapter because i havent caught up in my notes yet. felt like an ok place to end the chapter.

Though almost everyone left, the party awakes to a friendly, familiar face. Everyone doesn't immediately recognize him since he aged quite a few years, but Theo has rejoined the party :D

Theo explains that after the party disappeared, a mere two days ago from the party's perspective, he and Merlin had been working alongside each other for the last four years, both as part of the Silver Hawk as well as working with Merlin's teacher to find a way to get the party back home. He worked with Merlin and Merlin's teacher to be able to join us, though sadly it took the power of both wizards to hold open the door to Barovia, so only Theo was able to pass through.

Theo came to the party looking much more strong and capable than before! Barovia is already weird enough, it's no problem to accept this older, matured Theo.

After explaining the situation briefly to Theo, and introducing him to Ismark and Irena, we continue making our way north towards the Tser Falls. (#Looking at our map, it seems a shorter route through the forest.) A little ways out from the Vestani campsite, Ismark challenges Theo to a duel. Syrin says no. They do not duel. 

We make it to the bridge near tser falls, only to realize the bridge is much too high for us to reach. Before we start backtracking, Orikus notices something shining under the water. Gardar braves the currents to retrieve it; a shining steel box containing a "goop net."

We head back toward the Vestani camp and cut through the forest to get to the other path quickly. In the forest, the party gets ambushed by a group of dire wolves. It is a brutal battle in which Syrin almost dies. Theo takes this chance to show off his new abilities and heals him. Orikus takes one of the wolves with him. (#did he skin it for the pelt here or later I don't remember.)

Along the path to the bridge, we notice another, smaller path branching off to the side, old and overgrown. The path leads to a small clearing with 6 wicker men standing around a magical looking circle. The party nopes the fuck out of there.

Just past the Tser bridge, the party comes across an old weathered gate at a crossroads. After debating if it would be better to rest here or not, the party decides we should continue on towards the bone grinder.

We pass through a bit of forest and come across a campsite. Around a fire sit 7 small tree like men, and one larger tree man. They appear very angery and territorial, so we back out of there.

We eventually arrive at a small abandoned community surrounding a large windmill, presumably the Bone Grinder. As we approach the bone grinder, a raven over the door squawks and tries to warn us away. Theo knocks on the door. There is no answer, so Theo shows off more of his new abilities and uses his Paladin Senses to sense any evil presence nearby. He senses three fiends inside the building, and 4 points of evil energy outside the building. We begin inspecting the evil energy outside. They are four large stones with depictions of the four seasons engraved onto them. We knock down the stones. Nearby one of the stones is a crow eating a meat pie. Syrin tries to talk to the crow, but it is too engrossed in the pie. (#syrin had speak with animals for a very short while. i think i swapped it right after this session?) Once the crow finishes eating, he passes out and appears to be dreaming sweetly. Orikus takes the crown and puts him into the pocket of his overalls. Next to where the pie was, there are several small human teeth on the ground, possibly an offering to something.

After knocking all the stones over, we enter the windmill. The party is immediately assaulted by a horrendous stench. The inside of the windmill is small, the first floor made even smaller by all the clutter. The first floor is a kitchen, with something obviously cooking in the oven. There is a chicken coop to one side and various boxes, barrels, and chests around the room. The floor is littered with small human bones. (#the room must smell of death, decay, cooking flesh, and chicken turd. If you have never been inside a chicken coop, spare your nose the horrors.) A voice calls out to the party from the next floor up. There isn't anyone obviously on the first floor, and the party starts to go about destroying the place. Gardar rips beams out of the curling, Orikus starts smashing the walls, Theo and Syrin release a crate full of frogs before lighting the place on fire. One of the escaping frogs turns into a hag and alerts the others. The party begins a horribly brutal battle. Gardar dances with death and Theo takes heads. One of the hags escapes, and we manage to save two children from the second floor, and hopefully any children of the future. (#this is where Gardar had a cool heroic moment of like charging thru the burning building and like breaking open the closet the kids were locked in. Syrin just like climbed in thru the window. Sadly the children were afraid of the big half orc… Theo took the final blow for both the Hags which was also cool and heroic of him.) after the bloody battle, the party attempts to make a camp outside the windmill. Not only does it start pouring rain but we are chased off by Wolves. 

We run from the wolves north towards Vallaki. There are hunters hiding in wait for the wolves, saving our asses. We finally arrive at the gates of the city. 15 foot high walls surround the city, topped with wolf heads on pikes. Two guards watch us from beyond the gate.


	6. Chaper 6: Vallkai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> from the time we enter vallaki to the time we get banned from vallaki and almost everything in between,

We finally arrive at the gates of the city. 15 foot high walls surround the city, topped with wolf heads on pikes. Two guards watch us from beyond the gate. They allow us inside after we tell them our story. They seem very shocked that we defeated the hags, and tell us that we should tell our story to the guard captain, Izek Strazni. The guards describe the captain as a very demonic looking man (#or a man with a demonic hand????) We take the chance to ask the friendly guards about the city before we really head in. The guards tell us about the mayor and his festivals. The mayor really,  **really** likes festivals. The last one was the Wolf Head Jamboree! There is a different festival held every week, and the next one will be the festival of the Blazing Sun. The guards tell us the mayor is  **crazy** about festivals. The guards speak about the mayor and his festivals in the most painful of customer service voices, complete with the strained smiles.

The guards also give us a rundown/locations of some of the more prominent and important places in town: the Bluewater Inn (the guards comment that someone like Syrin, a half elf, is staying there), the church, the mayor's mansion, the stock Yards (general store,) blinsky toy store, the coffin makers shop/house, and Lady Watcher's estate. Across the lake there is the Mad Mage of Mount Baratok in the forest/mountains to the north.

The guards also tell us that there is a Vestani camp just to the (#west?) of the city. The guards also explain that Vestani are absolutely not welcome in the city. 

As we turn to leave, Theo shows some of his typical friendly nature, and he and the guards share some comically friendly parting. The guards shout out their names to us before we are completely out of earshot. Their names were Stephan and Sophia. 

We head towards the Inn first. On the way we pass by the Stock Yards. In front is a large-ish carnival wagon that reads "Ricktavio's Carnival of Wonders" in flaking paint on the side. It looks old and weathered. We continue on our way.

Eventually we do make it to the inn. Many ravens are perched around the top of the building. There is no music playing, but there is plenty of chatter happening all around. In the doorway, Syrin realizes that the party is still covered in blood and muck from their journey here. He uses simple magic to clean them all up. Syrin accidentally catches the attention of everyone in the bar, stopping whatever chatter was happening. 

All around the taproom are wolf heads mounted on plaques. There are quite a few people around enjoying drinks; 9 Barovian commoners, 2 lavish looking young men, 2 grizzled men dressed in wolf pelts, and one peculiar man, finely dressed in the colourful garb of a circus ringleader. He is a short half elf, his blond hair streaked with wisps of white making him look much older. He looks/sounds like he may be a bard.

To get over the awkwardness of their entrance, Syrin heads over to a table and pulls out his lute and begins to play some typical drinking songs. The patrons of the bar join in and the atmosphere becomes much more lively and happy.

The innkeeper comes to serve us food. He is an older yet fit and muscular man. When he comes over, Theo and Orikus offer to help in the kitchen. 

When the tavern gets quieter, Irwin chats with the party for a while. We get some information about some of the more prominent people in Barovia, in particular the city of Vallaki.

  * Lady Fiona Watcher: quoted as saying she would rather serve the devil than a madman
  * The mayor of Vallaki: has held festivals every week for the last 7 years. Believes the festivals will keep people happy and that happiness will kill Strahd. No one is allowed to speak against the festivals or else they disappear.
  * Wizards of Wine Winery: Run by the Martikov family. The Inn was expecting a shipment from them but it is very late. The winery is to the south west of Vallaki. Irwin gives Theo an insignia.
  * The Feathered Ones: The keeper of the Feathered Organization looking for the betterment of Barovia. It's a secret society of were-ravens.



(#here I have written "2 children running around upstairs?" And I can't remember if they were the children we saved or if possibly they're the children of the innkeepers? But they are upstairs and they are running.)

Irwin offers the party a free room for helping out. Theo, Syrin, and Ismark decide to stay downstairs a while longer; the rest of the party heads upstairs to bed.

When everyone else leaves, the colourful man invites himself to our table. He introduces himself as Rictavio, a carnival ringmaster with many oddities. He talks with Theo about Theo's backstory, taking a lot of notes. Another edition of All About Theo. When Syrin asks the bard about himself, he's reluctant to say much. He does say he has many goals, but doesn't want to say what they are. These words are accompanied by a very sinister looking smile, a stark contrast to his joyful/playful costume and persona. He leaves after that. 

We talk to the men in furs. They talk a lot about killing and hunting wolves. There has been a lot of talk and indication of killing wolves so far. They appear to be something very hated in Barovia.

When we finally decide to turn in for the night, there is discussion of what to do with the children we saved. Obviously they can't go home; they were more than likely traded for those pies. We come to the decision to leave them at the church.

In the morning, on our way to take the kids to church, we make a stop along the way to Blinsky's Toy Store. Blinsky shows us some of the toys he has for sale:

  * An ominous looking merry go round with little wolves chasing horses.
  * Some headless dolls
  * Gallows
  * A ventriloquist dummy that looks like Strahd
  * A doll with a strong resemblance to Irena. Blinsky explains it is a custom doll for the city's guard captain. It is the 6th doll
  * Two rope spinning tops (Beyblades)



We buy the tops for the children. Theo buys Irena the Strahd doll. She stabs it to doll death.

We make our way to the church with the children. Outside a young man is digging a new grave. He says his name is Milivoj. Inside, the priest is in the middle of a sermon. There are 7 people there, 3 of them children, in the middle of prayer. We wait outside the room for the service to end. The priest, Father Lucien, agrees to take care of the children. The Priest explains to us that the church is protected by the bones of a cleric - Saint Andral. Three days ago the bones were stolen so the church is no longer protected. Aside from the priest, the only other person who would have known about the bones was Yeska, the alter boy. Yeska is apparently a very paranoid young man and the priest told him about the bones to try and calm his anxiety a bit. We agree to look for the bones. After talking to Yeska we learn he told the gravedigger Milivoj, who stole the bones and sold them to the coffin maker, Henrik Vandervoort.

The party leaves to go talk to the coffin maker about the bones, leaving Ismark, Irena and the children behind at the church. The coffin maker seems to be also a paranoid man, having his door bolted shut by many many locks. After some persuasion, he lets us in. He seems afraid of something upstairs. We search the upstairs for the bones, and are attacked by several vampire spawn. The vampire spawn have us trapped in a room, and Theo can't reach them, so he jumps out of the second floor window to charge back into the house from the front. The Coffin maker however boltet his door again and refused to let Theo in. Theo uses some less gentle persuasion and kicks the door in to storm upstairs and try to finish off the vampires. They turn into mist and escape into the fog that exists everywhere in Barovia. The coffin maker tells us where the bones are hidden, and we take them and him back to the church.

After the coffin maker and bones at the church, we go to town square. We see guards replacing posters all around the square. The last posters of the Wolf Head Jamboree are being replaced with posters for the Festival of the Blazing Sun coming up. We see the guard captain, a frightening man with a demonic looking arm. We do not speak to him. We also see people in pillories with donkey masks on their heads. We are told they are being punished for "malicious unhappiness." We do not speak to them either. 

We take a look around the town square, don't see too much of interest, then we head back to check out the general store at the Stock Yards. The general store is being run by a young girl, possibly no more than 16 years old, with pretty green eyes and bubblegum coloured hair, just like Syrin's. If not for the fact they were born literal worlds apart, they could possibly be confused for cousins or something. The girl has a relatively bad attitude, much like someone who would rather be anywhere else but at work.

The rest of the party wants to go outside and examine Rictavio's cart, as they were hearing noises coming from it. Syrin opts to stay inside the general store. Orikus is the one who opens the cart, releasing a large armoured battle cat. The cat rushes into the general store, ignoring the party outside completely, and starts growling at Syrin and Bubblegum Girl. The rest of the party comes into the store as well, weapons drawn. The cat seems to realize that it is outnumbered and it runs off without attacking.

The party makes a half-hearted attempt to find the cat in the city. As they are going through the streets, they come past the mayor's house. We see bright purple flashes of light coming from the attic windows. We don't have time to investigate further since the cat is very fast.

We do not find the cat and instead we go back to the inn. At the in we see Mrs. Martikov working the bar, the two gruff men in wolf pelts, the two young rich men, and Rictavio alone at the bar counter looking worried. Everyone goes to talk to someone different; Gardar and Theo talk to the wolf pelts men. Their names are Yifgani and Solazar; they are wolf hunters and mercenaries for hire, though their prices are exceptionally steep for us. They tell us a little about some of the people here:

  * "No one hates the mayor more than Lady Watcher."
  * The rich kids at the next table are Lady Watcher's sons. They like to get drunk and cause trouble.
  * Lady Supposedly has a daughter who she keeps locked up in the house.
  * Lady Watcher is said to have blood ties to Strahd.
  * The guard captain is the mayor's right hand man and is extremely loyal to the mayor. He will kill any townsperson at the mayor's command. He is a capable fighter.



Syrin goes to the bar to talk to Rictavio. Somehow Rictavio manages to manipulate Syrin into helping find his cat - his battle partner and companion for Vestani hunting.

Syrin let's the party know that they are now going to the Vestani camp outside of town. The party does not object, since it's their own fault the cat has gone missing. Along the way, Rictavio tells us about his real identity; He is an older human man, a vampire hunter (who apparently also hunts the Vestani) his name is Rudolph Van Rickten.

We make up some plan along the way to explain why we're there and what we are doing. Something about a circus and such and being bodyguards for the ringleader. I don't remember. The Vistani camp is on top of a large hill, and around the hill are homes dug into the earth.

When we arrive at the camp we see many of the Vistani have been partying too hard and are very drunk and or passed out. About a fifth of them have pink hair. Mixed in around the camp are a handful of elves with dull grey skin. In a big tent on the hill we see a young man tied to the post holding up the tent. He looks like a child in his early teens. He is being whipped mercilessly by two older Vistani men. Gardar and Syrin are both extremely upset by this; hurting children is an unforgivable offence. The two of them go and ask what is going on. The men introduce themselves as Luvash Vilikov, the leader of the Vistani, and the one beating up the kid, and Kazimir, Luvash's brother. They tell us that Luvash's daughter had gone missing near Lake Zarovich while playing with the boy a couple days ago. Despite their efforts, the Vistani were unable to find her, so a grown man beat the shit out of a defenceless boy as punishment. The party offers to help them find his daughter, though Syrin makes the condition that if they help the boy must be set free.

The party goes back to town to get boats to search on the lake. Since the Vistani are not welcome in Vallaki, the party has to get the boats and meet back up with Luvash and his brother. 

We get two boats and the party splits up; Theo and Orikus go with Luvash, and Gardar and Syrin go with Kazimir to avoid any "accidents" that may happen with the child beater.

We see in the middle of the lake a lone boat, probably a fisherman. Syrin and Gardar head towards the boat and as they get closer they see a man with a somewhat large, possibly child sized, wriggling sack. They row the faster as they see this fisherman drop the sack into the water. Gardar jumps out and swims with all his might to get to the child. Syrin remains on the boat and tries to speak to the man to ask him "what the actual fuck!?" (#not in those words exactly but that was the sentiment.) The man has a glossy look in his eyes and seems to be not all there mentally. He and Syrin get into an argument that went something like "why are you throwing children in the lake!?" 

"She's a Vistani." 

"She's a child!" 

"She's a Vistani!" 

And basically the conversation doesn't go anywhere. Syrin used a hold person on the man and once Gardar had the child unbound and safely in our boat he jumped over to tie the man up. We pushed him off his boat to let him experience what he put the child through. Except there was no one coming to rescue him. There is no sympathy for child abusers here.

While that happens, Theo and Orikus had gone the other way to look for the missing child. Theo saw a magic lighting flash over the mountains and wanted to investigate, but hearing Gardar call that we found the child, Kazmir forced the boat to meet with the rest of the party. 

We make our way back to the Vistani camp to rest for the night. The little girl acts in a manner that makes her seem mature for her age. She also makes mention of rewarding the party for rescuing her.

When we arrive at the camp we see Rictavio entertaining the Vistani and Dusk Elves with his stories. The party follows Luvash for the rewards. He hands to Syrin a box full of jewelry. Theo looks at the box and a ring with a rams head design stands out to him. He picks out the ring and gives it to Gardar.

Theo and Orikus go to join the merrymaking and story telling while Gardar and Syrin help the young boy tied up. They untie him and Syrin heals him with magic before he runs off.

Syrin and Theo go off to talk to Rictavio while Gardar and Orikus talk to the quiet dusk elves. One dusk elf asks Gardar about "The pink haired fellow" he's travelling with. Gardar doesn't have much to say about him since we have only been travelling together for a few weeks or so. The dusk elf then asks that the party speak to him in his home.

The homes around the hill belong to the dusk elves. We follow the dusk elf into his home. At the entrance stand three dusk elf guards. The inside of the home is well decorated with wooden carvings of elven deities on one wall and a large tapestry on the opposite. The dusk elf introduces himself as Eragal, the current leader of the dusk elves. He asks the party for their assistance in a personal problem he's had.

He explains that his late sister, Patrina, has been visiting him in his dreams. Her body lies in Strahd's castle and he wishes to free her. His sister has told him, through his dreams, that within the Amber Temple is something that can revive her and also help to defeat Strahd. We make a deal with Eragal that if we help him to get what he needs from the temple, he will help us in our battle against Strahd. Eragal agrees, but explains that he will be leaving for the temple in three days whether or not we go with him.

Eragal takes Syrin aside and asks him about his pink hair. Syrin is suddenly made aware that, before coming to Barovia, he has never seen someone else who has a same or similar hair colour to him.

The party, and Rictavio, head back to Vallaki's inn to retire for the night. While they get some food, they ask Mr. Martikov a little about the town, specifically the mayor and the power structure. Mr Martikov explains that the Mayor is mayor because he has royal blood, and lights backing him. If the mayor was out of power, Lady Watcher would try and take power for herself. We ask Martikov if he would be mayor and he laughs us off.

Mr Martikov also tells us a bit about Argynvostholt, the old knights temple. He tells us that is is falling apart and is not a very sound structure, no one has made it their home. There is a mysterious Rider who passes through there sometimes though. A sword of sunlight resides there.

He tells us also of the ruins of Berez, but only that it's rumoured to have been drowned by a river by Strahd.

The next morning we go to the Mayor's house to try and befriend him. (#I have him written in repeatedly as "The Burger Master." I do not remember his name.) From outside his mansion we see many men and women taking twigs inside. A maid takes us, unprompted, to see the mayor, saying he's been expecting us.

We are taken to a large room with a big angry looking taxidermied bear head on the wall. The Burger Man arrives in the room accompanied by two very big dogs. Orikus drops the wolf pelts he'd been carrying and the Burger Master gives him 5GP for it. (#here my notes are thin and incomplete. Perhaps events happened in a different order than I have here but I got the most of it)

We tell the Burger man of our feats as Hag Slayers. He seems impressed. He asks us to stay in town for the next three days to be his honoured guests at the Festival of the Blazing Sun or whatever it was. We ask him if he can give us supplies for our journey up the mountain. We offer him the box of jewelry in exchange. He offers us: Studded leather armor, warm clothes, 7days rations, a tent, a donkey and cart to carry it, new weapons, and 25GP (which he gave to Orikus right away.) We hand over the box of jewelry. The mayor asks us about what we've done in the town. One of us mentioned fighting vampires in the coffin makers house. The mayor has a dramatic shift in character and sends guards away to take the coffin maker to prison for keeping vampires in the city. 

The party then goes to the church to try and save the coffin maker. The church entrance is surrounded by 12 guards yelling for the coffin maker to come out. Theo tries to stop them from taking him, but a guard grabs hold of him. Orikus attacks the guard holding Theo and the party is promptly surrounded and threatened for defying the Mayor's wishes. Gardar and Syrin both try and fail to persuade the guards to go easy on the coffin maker since he was a victim of the vampires. The party is forced to surrender, but Orikus pushes his way out of the circle of guards and runs away. The rest of us get taken away in cuffs.

The party gets a relatively light sentence for surrendering and because they murdered vampires, thus saving the town. The party (minus Orikus) has all of their weapons taken away, they get banned from Vallaki, and the Mayor refuses to hold up his end of the trade for the box of jewelry, though through the city gates he does give us warm clothes and a week rations. Thus ends our trip to Vallaki.


	7. Chapter 7: Party time ft. dusk elves and vistani

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> extra short its just the trip from vallaki to the amber temple

On the way out of Vallaki, Syrin picks up some tarnished silver cuff links with Strahd's face on them. They are useless to him, but he pockets them anyway.

The party makes their way through the forest towards the Vistani/Dusk Elf camp. We hear an ominous chanting beyond the trees in an unfamiliar language. We find several big burly men dressed in furs, chanting around a tree stump covered in runes which appear to be drawn in blood. Their chanting stops as soon as they notice is, we try to explain that we mean no harm and are just passing through, but they do not speak common. Gardar tries to connect with them by turning into a bear. It does not impress them. The burly men attack and without our weapons we have no choice but to run away.

We get a good distance away from the evil probably-druids and we see some ravens approaching while carrying a big tarp. The Ravens drop the tarp, which contains all of our stolen belongings from Vallaki, and then the Ravens turn into our friends from the Bluewater Inn; the Martikov family. The Ravens are naked when they transform and it upsets Theo. They have to cover themselves with the tarp. The Martikovs are our ally from Madame Eva's fortune; they give us a letter of introduction for the winery where we can find the one who will help us. They tell us that Orikus is awaiting us at the Vistani camp already. We thank them profusely for their help before continuing on to the Vistani camp.

At the camp we talk to (someone?) who tells us a bit about the druid/barbarians from the forest and that they're likely worshipers of an old demonic tree god Winter Splinter.

We stay the night with Erigal and agree to leave earlier than planned for his excursion to the Amber temple.

We depart the next morning after making the necessary preparations. We notice that Eragal does not have any warmer clothes to bring with him. He assures us he will be fine.

We make our way through an old, abandoned farming town. There are scarecrows around that appear to be following us. We ignore the scarecrows. The journey towards the mountains is otherwise uneventful.

When we get to the mountains, as we begin our ascent up the cobbled path, a single corpse stands in our way, blocking us from progressing. The corpse makes no move to attack. Theo and Orikus point their long weapons at the corpse to move around behind it without leaving themselves vulnerable. As the two of them are behind it, the corpse begins to speak. It's voice is heard in our heads telepathically, and it speaks in fragmented sentences. "More power…" "…back to normal…" it targets Gardar with some kind of hateful glare. Theo tries to speak to it: "Why are you attacking us?"

"I'll save them… I'll save them…"

We end up having to fight the corpse. We learn firsthand that Erigal is quite a powerful spellcaster, as he obliterates the target with a big fireball. The whole party gets caught in the crossfire. If it weren't for Theo and his protective Paladin Powers, we would have been toast.

As the Corpse falls, we see a sort of energy escape from it. Then Theo starts hearing voices in his head. Then we continue on.

As we walk, Theo asks Erigal, "So how old are you?"

"...old"

"old like what, 80?" 

Theo does not get a response.

The party pushes forward, up the mountain, and the weather takes a turn for the worst. We take shelter in a cave to wait out the blizzard. Everyone does their best to get some rest. We notice that Erigal's ears do not show past his hair. Erigal does not have ears. He does not want to talk about it.

After our rest, once the weather clears, we prepare to head outside. Orikus pops out of the cave first, sees Strahd, and then the whole party rushes out. Erigal looks completely terrified. He turns invisible and runs away. Strahd catches Syrin's gaze and gives an uncomfortably friendly wave. Strahd floats in the air a fair distance from the mountains cliffside pass, and sics some wolves on us to watch us fight. Gardar gets mad and picks up a wolf and throws it at Strahd. If Strahd were not basically a god here, he would have been hit by the wolf. But he was not. Strahd does look impressed by Gardar.

Syrin, intimidated and uncomfortable, yells at Strahd "you're pretty awful, emphasis on awful," and runs away. (#alternatively he messes up, yells "you're pretty awful, emphasis on pretty," and runs away out of embarrassment.) Strahd looks dramatically shocked and offended. Syrin gets the first hit in against Strahd lmaoo. Orikus throws some spears and tries to catch Strahd in his magic. Strahd deflects it easily and is relatively unimpressed. Strahd attacks Orikus and Orikus keeps asking for more, so Erigal shoots lighting at Strahd from out of nowhere? Thankfully he doesn't hit the party again. Theo takes on three of the big wolves on his own and escapes relatively unscathed. Strahd is impressed. We keep running away up the mountain.

We keep running until we find another place that we can rest for the night. In the morning, we get to talk. Syrin makes some jokes about Strahd, probably as a means to cope with everything. Erigal disapproves. Erigal tells us a little bit more about our destination: The amber temple was a great magical library where great wizards used to study. Supposedly Strahd got his powers from there. It is a place full of ancient lore and magics.

After resting, we continue to make our way up the mountain. We come to a hella ominous gate/building. A curtain of magical flames blocks the entrance through the gate. Erigal just walks right through the fire with like no problem. Theo scales the wall next to the gate easily, despite his heavy armor. Both Syrin and Gardar struggle and fail to make it up the wall. On the top of the wall, Theo has set off a trap that makes some gargoyles on top of the wall come to life and start attacking us. 

Syrin uses a big loud spell to try to shatter the gargoyles before rushing through the fire like Erigal. The gargoyles take big damage but do not die, also we hear rumblings of an avalanche. Syrin almost dies from rushing through the fire.

Behind the fire gate and the big wall is a well fortified tower. We make our way there to seek shelter. Syrin rushes there first, after sustaining heavy damage from the fire, he doesn't have the strength left to fight. The tower's door is too sturdy and Syrin can't get through. Gardar is the next to follow to the tower, but even with his great werebear strength he cannot get through the door. Theo gets launched into the air by one of the gargoyles while Erigal casts another fireball towards him and Orikus to get the gargoyles. 

Gardars relentless assault on the fortified door eventually proves worthwhile and we manage to get inside. Orikus and Theo manage to finish off one of the gargoyles before joining us inside the tower.

The avalanche catches up and the tower gets snowed in so we are forced to spend the night inside. We rest for the night and recover.

In the morning we climb up to the top of the tower to look for a route to escape. The top of the tower has statues of a goddess(?) or something and from behind the statues the party is attacked by some kind of snow demon Banshees or something. They drop items as they are killed. Gardar gets some Dice of Fate and Theo gets an evil looking Blood Spear. Because of the avalanche there is enough snow built up that the party can relatively safely jump/climb down from the top of the tower.

We arrive at a large bridge across a giant chasm. Shadow Strahd is there, except he isn't, but a giant goat is there, and then it's not, as it's eaten by a giant Roc. The four corners of the bridge have fortified towers or something? And we run as fast as we can past the Roc across the bridge and into the hiding holes of the towers while the Roc tries to get in another meal.

Eventually we somehow make it to the amber temple.


	8. chapter 8: The amber temple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From the time we arrive to the time we leave the amber temple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I attempted to post from my phone. The formatting may suck ass. I'll have to look at it later.

Eventually we somehow make it to the amber temple. It's a large structure built right into the mountains. We go completely past the main entrance and towards a large crevice where we can hear voices coming from. One of the voices calls themself "Emily" and tries to dissuade the party from entering. We do not trust the voices behind the crevice, and after talking for a bit they say we can come inside. We do so and walk into the expected ambush. The room past the crevice was full of vampire spawn and a dire wolf. Only the wolf managed to escape the party as it ran away. The room has a couple of doors, one made entirely of amber, behind which we see some glowing lights. Opening this door, we see a long hallway with several flaming skulls surrounding what appears to be a charred corpse. The skulls turn to our direction. We close and bolt the door.

Syrin finds a well hidden door in the room, behind which is a room full of scrolls which all disintegrate immediately, with one exception; we find a spell scroll, which Erigal says is the spell Greater Restoration. Theo holds onto that.

Gardar also finds a secret door, which leads into the Temple's magnificent main hall. The room is very large and the walls and ceiling are covered with a golden amber glaze. There are stairs down to a lower level and a balcony that runs the whole perimeter of the room. The temple has started falling into disrepair and some parts of the balcony have started falling apart. There is a very large statue of a wizard in the main room. (#60ft tall or something?) The statue wizard is cloaked and the face is fully hidden by shadows.

We cross the balcony to another door left slightly ajar. Beyond the door is a small room with a large crater like hole in its floor. Something very big and strong would have made that hole. There is also another secret door in this room leading to yet another scroll room. Unfortunately there is nothing worthwhile in this one. 

There is another closed off room we explore, inside of which are several trashed beds and yet another hidden door. Beyond the hidden door is a skeleton in some wizard garb holding a wand. There is a small hole in the wall, about the right size to stick a wand through, which is aimed at the main entrance. This was likely a place for someone to protect the temple from intruders. Gardar takes the dead wizards wand and gives it to Syrin. 

There is nothing more of interest in the small, trashed rooms so we move on. We go down the corridor on the far end of the room. The marble of the walls and floor are full of cracks. About halfway down the hall there is a door, which the party goes through. Past the door is a large chamber which appears to be a lecture hall. The walls are covered in bass relief portraits of wizards. Magical lanterns burn all around the room leaving it very well lit. On the far end of the room there is a large black board suspended by chains with various formulas written on it. Below the blackboard we see the feet of someone who is probably not the best at hide and seek. Theo and Syrin, the most human and possibly the least threatening looking of the party, go down to speak to the scared little man behind the board. He tells us his name is Vilnius. He tells us he came to this temple with his master who was looking for forbidden knowledge and power here. We make a guess that his master was probably the carried corpse we saw in the hall with the flaming skulls. Vilnius asks us to take him to his master. He wants to retrieve his master's spellbook. It is worth noting that Vilnius sounds somewhat resentful when talking about his master. Vilnius days he will not follow us anywhere but to his master's body. We ask Vilnius about how he’s survived in the temple, how long he’s been here, ect. He tells us about how he’s been eating rats or something and also he has a “lucky charm” which is an upside down v shaped pendant. We leave Vilnius alone once again.

The party continues up the hall from the lecture room and arrives at a caved in room. Beyond the doorway, standing past the rubble, is a single amber statue with a jackal’s head. The statue comes to life and we are forced to fight. Syrin's swords do nothing against it, but he learns that sound based attacks are probably safe inside here. We shatter the statue and continue on.

We make it to the balcony on the farthest end of the room. We see the giant wizard statue from relatively close up and notice that the face is not just hidden by shadows, but obscured by a magical darkness.

We go into the door on this balcony. It leads to a small room with a shrine to the goddess of secrets. On one side of the room is a door leading to stairs going down, on the other side is a door to a small room with another tiny arrow/magic slit for intruders.

We ignore the stairs for now and head back to the lecture hall. While the rest of the party talks to Vilnius, Erigal and Syrin sit down and have a comfy moment talking about Syrin's past. 

Afte a long rest in the lecture hall, we go back to the flameskull hall with Vilnius to retrieve the spellbook from his dead master. We enter the hall and Gardar charges in first. He fights most of the flaming skulls on his own, one of them makes flaming fists to try and fight him. The skulls explode on defeat, catching Gardar. Gardar is relatively ok, a little healing magic and he's good to go. He grabs the wizards book, but it turns to ash as he touches it. He also grabs the wizards staff. Vilnius didn't originally ask for the staff and Gardar is reluctant to give it up. A stern look is enough to dissuade Vilnius from asking for it. (The staff is cursed, though the party does not know that.)

Past the flameskull hall and through another set of amber doors we find an immaculate dining hall with a beautifully set table full of delicious smelling food. This room has some seriously evil vibes. Theo takes a decanter off the table and immediately the feast disappears and the room goes dark. We exit through a second set of doors as fast as we can so as not to discover what dark entity was lurking there. 

The party finds a secret room and when we open the door hundreds of skulls start pouring out of the room. They just do not stop. There is no way the room could possibly have held so many skulls without some wizardly trickery. 

The party pushes their way through the absurd amount of skulls in the secret room and comes across yet another hidden door. Past this secret door is a regally decorated room full of dust and cobwebs and a lich who apparently has some serious memory issues. The lich does not seem hostile and offers to escort us to the library to hopefully find what we came for. Erigal steals the lich's spellbook. It has, presumably, his name written on it: Exethanter.

The library is immaculate, well preserved, and entirely dust free. Exethanter can't remember where to find the resurrection spell that Erigal needs. Theo uses the greater restoration on Exethanter to restore his memory. He is surprisingly still not hostile. Exethanter escorts us to a seperate room with three amber sarcophagi, one of which contains the gift Erigal needs to resurrect his sister. 

Gardar touches one of the sarcophagi and collapses on the floor in pain. He wanted a gift of greater strength.

Erigal also needs to take a gift. He does not collapse in pain, but instead turns into a ghoul.

We get attacked by vampire spawn who were hiding in barrels in this room. While everyone's attention turns to them, Vilnius also tries touching one of the sarcophagi. He turns into a bear but can't handle it and just dies. Syrin casts a spell to hypnotize the vampire spawn and the battle is over very quickly.

Exethanter offers us some information about Argynvostholt: before Strahd became a vampire, the White Knights wanted revenge on Strahd. A revenant in Argynvostholt began building an army of undead to take to battle. The night the Knights went to attack Strahd was the night he turned into a vampire and they gave up on trying to get revenge. The knights stay in Barovia and kill Strahd's minions but otherwise they tend to keep to themselves.

Gardar decides he needs even more strength and the lich points us towards more sarcophagi. Before we go, Syrin picks up Vilnius' good luck charm. It seems to have some strong magical properties to it.

When we leave the sarcophagus room, we are in a treasure room. There is an amber golem protecting this room, but with Vilnius' charm, we are able to control the golem.

From the treasure room we pick up:

  * 17000cp
  * 30 gems worth 50GP
  * 12000SP
  * 6600EP
  * A silvered weapon
  * A gilded chariot
  * Some fine clothing for all of us
  * A fine wooden box worth 500GP containing about 250GP worth of jewelry and gems
  * And obsidian scepter worth about 9000GP



The party leaves the treasure room in their chariot full of treasures pulled along by their new golem. We get to the main hall again and Gardar says he wants to keep looking for more tombs. Syrin insists it's too dangerous here and we should leave now that we have what we came for. Gardar insists on looking. Syrin doesn't want to leave without the whole party together, so he parks the cart in the main hall while Gardar and Theo go together to look around some more. While they're gone, the giant wizard statue starts spitting Fireball at us. When Gardar and Theo return, we get blasted again. Everyone in the cart suffers major injuries. Gardar insists on continuing to search for more tombs, stating that power is more important than friends. Syrin immediately loses all respect he had for Gardar. 

Gardar leaves with Orikus this time to search the other side of the temple for tombs. Theo and Syrin move the chariot under the wizard statue where it's hopefully safer so they can investigate. Syrin climbs up the statue and flips into the darkness that would be it's face and finds the head is hollow with a small magical fox. The fox is caught by surprise and very quickly eliminated. Syrin steals the foxes things including a pair of gold framed rose coloured glasses and a small origami boat that seems to have some magical properties.

Syrin hears a voice in his head, probably from Gardar opening Tombs, it offers him the ability to know where Videi is at all times. Syrin refuses the gift, but worries that maybe it would have been his only chance at finding his dearest friend. He blames Gardar for these bad feelings.

As we finish up and start to leave the temple to rest, we see a man at the foot of the giant statue swallowing whole toads. It's gross and unsettling. We discover that the amber golem cannot leave the temple. Luckily Theo can summon a magical steed to pull it, though the steed ends up looking just as spooky as everything else here. The party goes to rest in the small room where we first entered the temple before we begin our descent back down the mountain.


	9. Chapter 9: To argynvostholt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> back down thru the mountains and tsolenka pass and right to argynvostholt

We leave the Amber Temple, our chariot pulled by a skeletal steed. We make it to Tsolenka Pass without difficulty, pass through the flame gate, then descend the mountain. Nothing noteworthy happens on our descent. We head to the Vistani camp, where Erigal leaves the party. We offer to the Vistani some of the treasures we found in the amber temple for trade, including: the jewelry box, obsidian rod, gems, .chunks of amber, a crown, and the infinite wine decanter and chalice set Theo stole from the dining hall. The Vistani give us: a donkey and cart to pull our things, 2 week's worth of rations, 2 fishing rods, studded leather, and a breastplate. They also let us pull from their treasure cart. We get: a trident of fish control, a potion of healing, a pearl of power, some stones of farspeach, a flying broom, a spell scroll for cone of cold, Moontouched sword.

We spend the night with the Vistani, partying and then crashing, and in the morning we send a message to our friends in Vallaki to update them on what we're doing

The party then makes their way to Argynvostholt. The once grand fortress has fallen to disrepair. The entire right side of the building is collapsed and the room is caved in and crumbling away in many places. The building has a lot of dragon themed decor. A large dragon statue blows a puff of cool air at the party as we make our way to the front door. It was probably once meant to be a trap but it's deteriorated over the years. From the second floor above the front entrance, a voice tells us to go away. We enter the building. The building is very dark inside, and as soon as we enter a large winged shadow passes over us, hissing, and disappears into the darkness beyond the room. Theo uses his Paladin Senses but finds nothing nearby.

We go to the doors on the right of the building. They lead to a large ballroom, now crumbling and full of cobwebs. Literally, there are cobwebs everywhere. It's not surprising that the ballroom was home to giant poisonous spiders. Unfortunately we are ambushed and forced to fight them. A somehow even larger spider joins the fray too. We take some decent damage from the surprise attack but somehow stumble out of the room alive. Gardar took some decent damage, but not enough to need healing urgently. Syrin, still mad at him for his behaviour in the Amber Temple, refuses to heal him now.

The party moves on to another room, probably once for storing wine but that's all soured now. Hiding behind some barrels of spoiled wine, Syrin finds a dusk elf. He offers some water to the frightened looking elf and uses magic to heal his wounds. He introduces himself as Savid.

As thanks for the party helping him, Savid gives us some information about Argynvost. Argynvost was a silver dragon, disguised as a human noble, who founded the Order of the Silver Dragon. Argynvost was slain by Strahd.

Savid thanks Syrin profusely for his help and for saving him, he sneaks a ring into Syrin's hand and takes his leave.

After Savid leaves, we find a hidden door in the wine room. Beyond the door is a small room with a fireplace. A sarcophagus has been repurposed into a wine cabinet. Suddenly the fireplace roars to life, the dancing flames taking the form of a dragon's face. The magic flame speaks to us: "My knights have fallen into darkness. Show them the light they once knew; save them if you can." 

We move on from the spooky fireplace. We explore the rest of the first floor but find nothing of note. We do open a door into a Revenant sparring session, and nope right back out of there, and then make our way upstairs.

There is a room meant for prayer with a stained glass window depicting a portrait of Saint Andral. We move on. We enter another room in a state of predicted disrepair. A torn painting, a broken door, and a journal page. The journal reads:

"My knights have fallen, and this land is lost. The armies of my enemy will not be stopped by sword or spell, claw or fang. Today I will die, not for avenging those who have fallen, but defending that which I love- this valley, this home, and the ideals of the Order of the Silver Dragon. 

The evil surrounds me. The times has come to throw off this guise and show these heathens my true fearsome form. Let it spark terror in their hearts! Let them tell their stories of dark triumph against the protector of the Balinok Mountains! Let Argynvost be remembered as a dragon of honor and valor. My one regret is that my remains will not lie in their rightful place, in the hallowed mausoleum of Argynvostholt. No doubt my bones will be scattered among my enemies like the coins of a plundered hoard, trophies of a hard-won victory.

I do not fear death. Though my body will die, my spirit will live on. Let it serve as a beacon of light against the darkness. Let it bring hope to a land wrought with despair. Now, to battle!

A"

We leave the journal page. The broken door leads to a very big and very empty room. 

The next room we investigate has a large table, around which are many revenants. We close the door and move on.

The final room we go to has no door. We know the Revenant leader is likely in this room, as it's right above the entrance. He looks quite upset that we ignored him and came upstairs anyway.

The revenant leader goes into some big edgy speach, about how he'll come back even if he's destroyed and blah blah blah. At some point we learn his name is Vladimir Hornguard. Theo counters it with a speech of his own, about bringing peace to the Order of the Silver Dragon, and to the people and country of Barovia. Vladimir seems impressed by Theo's speech, and tells us to prove ourselves in battle.

On defeat, Vladimir's final words are simply "do right by us" as he disappears in a blinding, holy looking light. As do, presumably, the rest of the revenant in the building. After the battle, we recieved Vladimir's equipment: +2 Greatsword (Dragonslayer) +2 sunsword and +2 Moonsword. As well as some splitmail.

After the fight, it starts raining really hard. Theo and Syrin start making their way downstairs to bring in the donkey and the cart, to protect them from the Barovian night. We decide our donkey is named Lance.

A woman comes rushing to the building from the trees. She's dressed in all red and looks quite panicked. She's being chased by Wolves, but with a single swing of her weapon, she defeats it. She seems to be seeking the safety of the fortress.

Orikus and Gardar jump out the second floor window seeking to fight the yet unseen wolves. When the wolves show themselves, however, we realize there are far too many to fight, especially after an intense battle mere minutes before. We change our plans to barricade the doors and hope the wolves cannot get into the building. 

There is a single opening into the fortress where the wolves can enter, but we set up to attack all the wolves coming in. Eventually they are smart enough to not come into the opening full of fallen comrades.

We make a run for the Chapel and climb up onto the roof. We jump into the revenants room through a collapsed part of the roof, and finally we are far enough away from the danger to talk to the lady in red.

Her name is Esmerelda, and she is a self proclaimed vampire hunter, student of Rudolph Van Rickten. She was scouting castle raven loft where she was caught and bit by Strahd. She managed to ward off his curse though. She has a prosthetic right leg made of metal and moving parts. She asks our assistance to go take on Ravenloft but she doesn't want to go as a big group. We tell her we still have things to do before we can go storm the castle, but she doesn't seem to want to wait long. She does share with us a bit of what she's learned of Strahd's castle; Strahd has many attendants, mostly vampire spawn of past adventurers. He has many magical defences, even moving walls.

Esmeralda tells us she was looking for her teacher, who we last saw in Vallaki, which we tell her. We take a rest for the night in our magic bubble (leomund's tiny hut)

At some point in the night, a cart rolls up to the fort, a very very drunk looking man stumbles out, pisses on the dragon statue, and hobbles away without the cart. We inspect the cart in the morning, after the rain has lightened up a bit. The interior is very lavish looking with a well made coffin inside, made by Vallaki's coffin maker. On the front, the coffin is labeled "Gardar Thrakk." 

Orikus pulls the coffin out to open it. Inside were many bats and a letter addressed to "The Hag Slayers." It is an invitation to dine with Strahd. 

We ignore the invite for now and decide we'll go to the winery. Esmeralda runs off into the mist.


	10. Chapter 10: to the winery

We make our way towards the winery, our trip uneventful. The estate is very far from the main road, and as we try to make our way towards it, an old man beckons to us from beyond the treeline. 

The old man introduces himself as Davian Martikov. He explains that the winery was once the only place fertile enough to grow anything, but now it's been taken over by evil druids and tree blights. Gardar explains to Davian that "we are very good at violence" and we offer to assist with the problem.

Davian draws a rough map of the house in the dirt, pointing out the three entrances: the main front door, the back door, and the docking bay. He informs us of the quickest way to get to the second floor.

Being the bold adventurers that we are, the party walks right up for the main entrance. Someone sees us from the second floor and using a catapult, starts flinging flaming sacks at us. We do make our way around to the back entrance, where Theo kicks down the unlocked door. We go down to the cellar to the spiral staircase and make our way up to the second floor. Making our way up, Syrin notices the tree blights have seen them. 

We make it to the top of the stairs and there stands a man wearing antlers with red eyes and a few blights next to him. The battle begins, there are actually three druids, and they summon just so. many. Fucking blights. Theo takes out the druids in some of the more gruesome ways possible (cut in half but not all the way, tackled down the stairs) after a quick look over the winery, we determine that there are no more druids or blights. Theo takes one druids extremely evil looking staff, Gulthias. It makes Orikus' crow and also Gardar feel particularly on edge. 

We beckon over the Martikovs back to their home. We help them clean up the mess of blood and bodies and they are incredibly hospitable to us in return. Davian asks about what happened while he and the family help bandage our wounds. He asks for our assistance once again to find some magic rocks to make the grapes grow again. Most likely over at some evil-sacred druid ritual place. 

The Martikovs are exceptionally hospitable to the party, treating us to a good meal, a hot bath, and a safe and comfortable place to sleep. We have a nice relaxing bath where Theo tells the party stories of his four years without the rest of us. We notice he happens to have little feathers on his shoulder blades. No one questions this. For the first time since coming to Barovia we have a really truly restful night.

In the morning, we make our way to yester hill. On the top of the hill there is a large, twiggy statue vaguely resembling Strahd. The top of the hill is surrounded by a ten foot high stone wall. All over the hill there are stone mounds — graves, most likely. The grass on the hill is all dead, yet somehow well maintained. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but what's new.

The party goes up to the wall, but inside there doesn't appear to be anyone. We jump over the wall. Both Theo and Orikus get hit by lightning - get wrreked kids.

The party goes to investigate the Strahd statue, but Syrin notices in the distance a night mare carrying Strahd as he stares off into the distance. Syrin does not join in the statue investigation, not that it goes anywhere anyway, since the druids of Yester Hill pull themselves out of the dirt and begin chanting ominously. 

Ignoring the druids, Theo tries to set the Strahd Statue on fire, but Strahd puts out the fire. We start to eliminate the druids, trying to avoid whatever their group chanting may be summoning. 

Syrin, who had been keeping an eye on Strahd, is shocked when Strahd appears behind him in a blink of an eye. Syrin gets bit, and then so does Theo. We fight strahd and he goes down quickly, vanishing in a sparkling puff of snow. Of course strahd was never really there.

The party does not manage to eliminate the evil druids in time, and their chanting ends. "Winter Splinter has been Reborn."

Some 24ft tall tree monster starts making its way towards the hill, (### with hundreds of little blights in tow. Theo breaks his evil staff, killing off the blights.) Gardar tries to grapple the giant tree monster, and Theo gets trapped in its vines. Everyone looks in horrible condition. Just when the dire situation looks to be completely hopeless, Theo begins to blow blue, his eyes shining gold blasting a ray off into the sky. Theo flies up, wings sprouting from his back, he flies high into the sky, and swoops back down towards the Blighted Tree God, sword glowing, he smiles the beast killing it in a blinding flash of light.

We take a moment after the battle to heal up before going off to explore the forest from which the tree god came. We find there a tree stump with a silvered axe, and a human skeleton next to it. Gardar takes the axe.


End file.
